Senator reflects on sailor's shooting death

State Sen. Bill Ferguson, an alumnus of the Teach for America program, was helping former student Antuan Gladden through the process of applying for a job when Gladden's brother, a Navy sailor named Alonzo, was gunned down in front of a relative's home.

"In Antaun's email, he wrote that he was devastated and couldn't understand how this could happen. And rather than focusing on himself in this time of unbelievable hurt and pain, he was writing to ask me if he should go ahead with the interview. . .because he didn't want to disappoint me.

I told him to reschedule. I told him I was so sorry. . .to tell me if there was anything I could do. And I told him to stay strong.

What else could I say? That this senseless gun violence is beyond infuriating? That we don't have nearly enough urgency in stopping the violence in our communities? That if only he had grown up in another neighborhood maybe this wouldn't have happened?

I can't stop thinking about it. I cannot get the injustices that led up to this horrific incident out of my mind. We're not doing enough, we're simply not doing enough."